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The author of Your Simple WebPageMaker talks about his javascript HTML editor, what it means to him and to his ministry as a priest.
Tell us something about Your Simple Web Page Maker
Well, basically it is a web page that creates other web pages. It is coded in javascript -- a script most often used by web coders for adding interactivity to web pages -- and is my first attempt at writing javascript codes.
Do you actually use Your Simple WebPageMaker?
Yes, I do. I have used it for some of the web pages at the Colegio San Agustin -Bacolod website. I have also written HTML-based class presentations for my students with it.
Is it the only editor you use?
Oh no, certainly not! Your Simple WebPageMaker is good for quick pages and demos. In fact, the editor I used for making it is Arachnophilia, probably one of the better, if not the best, free HTML editor available on the Net right now. I also use other editors as well just to test them out. Currently I'm into XSite, a really "big" HTML editor that can also function as a WYSIWYG. I wouldn't use Your Simple WebPageMaker for editing multiple pages, that's for sure. But when I find myself in the Internet with a computer that has no editors installed and I need to make a quick page for whatever reason, I just go straight to Your Simple WebPageMaker.
What made you think of making Your Simple WebPageMaker?
I started making it for fun. At the beginning I just wanted to see how far I could go in customizing the free javascripts I was downloading from the Internet. I found a couple of HTML generating javascripts from a free website. I stripped one to the essentials -- a button, textarea, and a preview code -- and then tried to rebuild the whole thing up. The result is my HTML Exerciser. After that, I worked on the other one, changing its appearance, adding a feature here and there, adding codes from other utilities -- enriching it, so to speak... In the end, it began to look quite different from the original. That was the time I began calling it Your Simple WebpageMaker.
How long did it take you to finish Your Simple WebPageMaker?
I was doing it off and on for three months. I even had to buy a book on javascripting to properly learn how to make the buttons work. It still is an unfinished work though. I will still need to improve it in certain areas.
Are you planning to go into business with it?
With a javascript-driven HTML editor? Absolutely not!
So, why are you making it available on the Internet?
It is my way of saying "Thank You" to the men and women who have shared with me something of themselves through the Internet. Your Simple WebPageMaker is not an original product; it is a synthesis of the things I have received for free from the Web, symbolic of the way I have been enriched through the wealth that others give freely.
Are others using Your Simple WebPageMaker?
Well I hope so. I'd be gratified if someone is using it.
You are a priest, not a programmer. How do you see yourself doing somebody else's job?
I am a priest, and an Internet hobbyist. I don't see myself as doing somebody else's job by writing javascript codes and web pages.
But don't you think that you have become more than an Internet hobbyist when you made Your Simple WebPageMaker available to the Web?
That depends on what you mean by "hobbyist". Let's just say I am a "hobbyist" on the producing side.
Can you please elaborate on that?
There are basically four groups of people who go into the Net: first, you have those who go there to get something -- the consumer. These go into the Web to get information or acquire a product, or be entertained. The second group contribute to the exchange of information by using email services and messageboards. These surfers join poll surveys or send articles to websites which in turn make these available for everyone's consumption. A third group also contributes information, but they do so by packaging it and making it available to the Net themselves. These are those who create their own websites and make their information available through ways they are capable of with minimal help from the "big boys". The "Big Boys" are those who make the packaging possible. These belong to the fourth group. I consider myself among those in the third group with a slight leaning towards the fourth group. If more people begin using Your Simple WebPageMaker, then I'd be "sort of" in the fourth group.
Are you thinking of joining the "Big Boys"?
On a professional level, no. As a hobbyist, perhaps. But I will need to be a financially capable hobbyist to be one of them.
How is your hobby helping you be a priest?
On a personal level it keeps me plugged into an emerging culture. With this hobby, I am continually learning something new. My present level of WWW inculturation allows me to see apostolic possibilities that are not visible to others who are not "IN" it. If one is a priest in a situation like mine where offline apostolic ministry can change every four years, it is also a good thing to have one on-line that can be exercised irregardless of place or manner.
And do you consider Your Simple WebPageMaker an exercise in online apostolic ministry?
You bet I do!